One family's fight against racial discrimination is set to spark nationwide reform within the Australian Electoral Commission after a traumatic experience at a voting booth.
Murray Benton was set to cast his vote in the 2023 voice referendum alongside his mother and brother when they were allegedly accused of theft and threatened with police involvement.
Mr Benton, a Barkindji Koori man, said they were asked to remove their Yes23 t-shirts before they could cast their ballots.
After experiencing a lack of support and a sense of responsibility while trying to lodge a complaint, Mr Benton felt he was left with no choice but to file racial discrimination proceedings against the commission.
The matter was resolved in the Federal Court in November, with the commission reportedly agreeing to implement a suite of significant measures to improve cultural safety and accessibility.
According to the National Justice Project, which worked with Mr Benton, the reforms include cultural competency training to 100,000 temporary election workers and more than 1000 staff before the federal election.
The organisation revealed the AEC is also set to establish a dedicated telephone line to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people during elections.
Mr Benton hailed the reforms as ''meaningful, practical change'' that demonstrate vital progress towards ensuring a safe and respectful electoral system for everyone.
"This has never been about looking backwards or assigning blame,'' he said in a statement issued by the National Justice Project.
''It has always been about making sure no other Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person has to experience what my family experienced when exercising something as fundamental as their democratic right to vote.''
The AEC said it strives to serve Australians to the best of its ability but acknowledged that not everyone attending the polling booths has a positive and seamless experience.
"Every Australian has the right to participate in our democracy with confidence, dignity and respect," a spokesperson said in a statement to AAP.
"When people share experiences that indicate we have fallen short of that standard, we listen carefully and take those experiences seriously."
The AEC welcomes opportunities to strengthen its cultural capability and to ensure its services meet the needs of all Australians, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the spokesperson said.
The AEC reforms emphasise that individual complaints can lead to systemic change, National Justice Project chief executive George Newhouse said.
He pointed to tools like Hear Me Out and the Call It Out Racism Register that can be used to document experiences of discrimination and drive change.
''The outcome shows that meaningful reform is possible when the concerns of First Nations people are heard and institutions are willing to listen,'' Mr Newhouse said.
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